Ok, I’ll respond to the call. I just can’t get used to being called an oldtimer.
i.e. where/when Chuck Lucas born, family, where/when baptised, schools attended?
Born in Mobile, AL, 1939 or 1940, I’m guessing. Attended Harding, graduated from there in prob early ’60’s. Got a masters from there if I remember correctly. think that his major was history. Married Ann Trauber (sp?). Three kids, Leigh Ann, Allison, and Jonathan. And had here degree in BioChemistry, BA Harding, MA Milsapps college. Don’t know when or where baptized, but as a young person, I’m sure, and I never heard of any rebaptism.
Parents were CA and Mary. CA was a preacher. I met him on a few occasions. Very typical of mainline preachers of the day, I would say. CA was baptized by Marshall Keeble I think, or perhaps it was Chuck’s grandfather. (my memeory is not clear, and I am an oldtimer). Seems like the story was that he would go and listen to Keeble from his car at Keeble’s tent meetings. (Marshall Keeble was a fantastic black preacher who drew thousands to tent meetings. The white folks would go and listen from their cars. He was kind of a Billy Graham to the church of christ, especially among blacks. I think he died in the ’60’s). Don’t remember anything about siblings, but I think that Chuck has a sister. No brothers I’m quite sure.
Where was he before 1967 when he was ministering in Gainesville FL?
Chuck started in the ministry in Mississippi as a youth minister under a preacher named Alonzo Welch who moved from preaching to establishing Sunnybrook Childrens Home in Jackson, Miss. Alonzo was (maybe still is alive) a great man who bucked c of c nit picking regarding the “correct way to distribute church money in the care of orphans”, and put this thing together. Did some wonderful work. Chuck’s courage to think outside the box and resist brotherhood pressure was probably due to his association with Alonzo. He spoke of him like he was a father in the faith to him and brother Welch came to Gainesville from time to time. A few from G’ville went to work at Sunnybrook thru the years.
Chuck came to Gainesville in ’67 from being a youth minister at Central c of c in Miami. It was the largest c of c mainline church in Miami–no longer exists under that name. He was hired to come and work on the campus and begin a work called Campus advance which was a pilot program where a couple of campus ministries were going to try something different. I don’t know the details of this other than that another location was in Texas, I think at Texas Tech. There was another man, Jim Bevis who was involved in the other location, as I recall. The Florida work took off, the Texas one was not as well known and I’m not sure what happened.
The concept of taking the gospel to the campus students was contrary to the way campus ministry had been done in the past by the c of c. Prior to campus advance, churches near campuses would set up “Bible chairs” and open student centers where students could come and play ping pong and take accredited course thru the Harding extension of the school of religion.
Chuck gathered the few college kids who were here at that time–I think JP Tynes was one of the early ones, Sammy Laing came later, and they began to go to the campus on purpose and try to set up studies etc. The soul talk came about by accident. Sammy was a member of Sigma Chi, and had Chuck come as an after dinner speaker at the frat house one friday night (Sammy wasn’t exactly eager to this from the way the story was always told). People started asking questions, the discussion got lively and interesting. There was a frat party that night and the girls were arriving, the band setting up, the kegs, etc, but the discussion continued. Someone suggested that they continue it in a room upstairs, and a significant number ditched the party and continued the discussion.
From this came the realization that if he could get into the residence areas and just get group discussions started that interested people would surface. It was a perfect thing for the times as it was during a time of great social change, the Viet Nam war, etc, and everyone wanted to talk about all subjects.
Soon regular meetings were scheduled at Sigma Chi, which began to be called Soul Talks by the college kids. Other soul talks were begun in the dorms. In a few short years they went from 2 or 3 a week led by Chuck to about a hundred led by college students and others. The concept was a great way to arouse curiosity which would often lead people to want to visit at church where they would see a very different type of Christianity from the stale, liturgical, stuff that most had been raised on.
After being in Gainesville for 3 years (the church was then called 14th St), Chuck’s succes on campus was having a positive effect. The older members were welcoming the students, feeding them on Sunday nights (we called it Student Supper), and befriending them. The minister, Mark Hicks, was either fired or resigned (I was to arrive a few weeks later, so I don’t know which), and Chuck was installed as the preacher/campus minister.
In the fall, JP Tynes, who was starting grad school was to become a part time campus minister for a year or so, and then replaced by a full time Sammy Laing who graduated in 1971.
We sang a lot, much of the music contemporary to its time, although not much was available, the congregation was loving, genuine, and integrated which was a real shock to some. Hippies were welcome, and people came dressed as they were. Success in numbers gradually attempted to bottle up and reproduce what the Holy Spirit was doing. The concept of “sharpness” created more of a dress code, and by the mid ’70’s the early work which was so fun and Holy Spirit driven was but a memory to some of us, and never experienced by the rest. Sorry, I think you got more history than you asked for, but that’s the danger of getting an oldtimer started….
exile